Connie Cox - His Hidden American Beauty

What method of persuasion would work best with her?

Of all his nieces and nephews, Sophie was the most stubborn of the bunch. She’d often been compared to him. What would have worked best for him?

“Sophie Olympia Christopoulos, I’m not going to treat you like a baby. You’re too brave for that. Now stick that finger out there and prove it to me.”

Niko could see the wheels turning in Sophie’s little brain and knew he’d scored. She stood up straighter and held out a finger. Right before Annalise rested the meter against it, Sophie broke. “Hold my hand, Uncle Niko, so it won’t go and hide again.”

Niko looked up at the ceiling, trying to find the strength before looping his fingers firmly around her tiny wrist. “All right. Let’s do this.”

“Are you ready?” Annalise moved quickly, pricking in mid-sentence before Sophie had a chance to tense up more. “It’s over.”

Sophie looked surprised. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“When Daddy does it, it hurts more.”

Niko could guess why. His brother probably let the drama build so high that the fear was worse than the prick.

It seemed a family meeting was in order.

The tug o’war that had been pulling at him all these months gave a jerk to his gut. He was the doctor in the family, the one they’d all sacrificed to put through medical school. The one they relied on for explaining these kinds of things. But he’d been out of town and out of touch more often than not.

And, if all went as planned, after this trip, he would be practically unreachable most of the time.

Guilt bowed his shoulders.

Annalise read the numbers then showed them to Niko. He hid his wince then checked his watch.

“We’ll eat in fifteen minutes. It’s about time for insulin, rapid and long-acting. Let’s go with the same amount and I’ll make sure she eats better this meal to balance it out.”

“Sounds good. Check again a few hours before bedtime to see if she needs a snack. Ask your waiter to bring apples and orange juice to keep in your room’s refrigerator.”

“Will do.”

“Ice cream!” Sophie said. “I want ice cream. Yiayia said I could have—”

Niko cocked his eyebrow, stopping her whine in mid-sentence. “If you eat your meal, you can have a little for dessert.”

While Annalise opened up her refrigerator and took out a vial of insulin, Niko paged through the notebook. “Abdomen for breakfast and lunch, thigh for supper, right?”

Annalise double-checked her notes. “Yes. And today is left side, tomorrow is right side.”

Sophie’s face clouded up as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She looked so small and delicate.

Niko felt so powerless. Injections and a strict regimen were Sophie’s fate for the rest of her life.

He picked her up to sit her on the examining table, giving her a big hug midway. “Sweetie, I would take this for you if I could, but I can’t.”

“If I don’t eat, I don’t have to have a shot, right?”

“Not an option, little one.”

He took the vials from Annalise and filled the syringe to the proper marking.

“Hold your finger out like a candle, sweetie.” He held up his own finger, showing her.

“I’m going to hold your leg still.” He put his hand on her thigh. “When I say, ‘Now,’ pretend you’re blowing out the candle. Be sure to blow hard.”

She gave him a confused look.

“Trust me.” He focused on the injection site. “Now.”

While Sophie blew, Niko took advantage of her distraction and injected the insulin.

“Good girl. All over.” He jotted down the particulars in Sophie’s notebook, taking a moment to appreciate the details his brothers and sisters-in-law were trying so carefully to document.

“You want to dig through the treasure chest, Sophie, and pick out a toy?”

“Okay.” Sophie shrugged, not looking very excited. After all these months of doctors’ visits she’d probably been rewarded with too many cheap toys in the past to make this one special.

Annalise helped Sophie down from the table then opened a huge plastic tub filled with monster trucks and snorkels and magic wands.

“I think there’s a superhero cape in there somewhere. A real one.”

Sophie began flinging plastic trucks and coloring books out of the box, digging for the cape. “Really?”

“Absolutely. I save the good stuff for the most courageous girls and boys.”

Niko gave Dr. Annalise Walcott a long look. She was a smart one, reinforcing Niko’s challenge to be brave with an enticing reward. Small things made big impressions with little patients. While he had the minimum of pediatrics training, he’d treated enough frightened children to pick up a thing or two. Apparently, Annalise had treated her own fair share of children, too.

“Found it!” Sophie triumphantly held up a bright pink cape along with the sparkling wand attached to it.

Niko quickly yanked off and crumpled up the tag that declared it a fairy costume instead of a superheroine disguise.

As she pointed the wand at him, he obligingly shrank back with as much mock terror on his face as he could muster. “SuperSophie. If I were a nasty villain, I would be quaking in my shoes right now.”

“Let me tie it on for you,” Annalise offered.

The pleased smile she gave Sophie made Niko think the good doctor really had picked out the cape herself. With her long legs she’d make the perfect bustiered and masked crusader.

Niko rubbed his hand over his eyes, clearing the vision. What was it about this demure doctor that had his imagination running wild? Had he been under so much pressure that he needed to resort to a fantasy life for relief? If so, what did that say for his stamina in the field?

Lack of resilience or desire to make a difference wasn’t what sidelined most of the special mission doctors. Coping with the mental stress, knowing they were only making a small dent in the needs of so many was what broke most of them.

Then again, maybe Annalise brought out the creative imagination in him. Nothing wrong with that, was there? This was a fantasy cruise after all.

“You’re really good with her, Dr. Christopoulos. I’m impressed.” When she smiled, her gaze was honest, her voice sincere. It felt better than good to be appreciated.

“It’s Niko.” His own voice was huskier than normal.

“Niko.” She licked her full lips.

Fascinating and, oh, so sexy with no contrivance or even an awareness of what her mouth could do to a man.

Niko reined himself in. It had been a while. Where he’d been wasn’t exactly an environment conducive to lovemaking.

How did he ask the good doctor if she would like to share a drink with him under the stars tonight? How could he make himself stand out in a crowd when he bet every man on board this ship would like to do the same?

I don’t do dinner, she’d said .

She’d been offputting on the gangway, but Niko could understand why. She probably had to field invitations and propositions all day, every day from total strangers.

What made him different from them? And why did it matter so much that he was? There were plenty of women aboard this ship looking for a diversion. But he had no interest in pursuing them. Only her.

What made her different?

He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out.

He searched for the right pick-up line but came up blank. What was the matter with him? He’d had no trouble knowing what to say to charm the opposite sex since he’d turned twelve.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Annalise wiped away a non-existent blemish.

“How about sharing a bottle of wine tonight?” Nothing glib or witty or clever there. Just a straightforward request. “I thought, as colleagues, we could discuss medicine aboard ship. Strictly professional curiosity.”

She was shaking her head before she even started to turn him down. “I don’t really think …”

That’s when he heard them coming. No one could ever say a Christopoulos didn’t give you fair warning before arriving. From the sound of it, the whole family was in the medical suite’s anteroom.

Annalise looked alarmed.

“Not to worry. It’s not a mass emergency. Just an invasion of family.”

Family. Wasn’t that what he’d wanted when he’d planned this elaborate ruse, to spend time with family? Why was he even trying to strike up a shipboard romance with a woman who obviously had no interest in him?

He had to admit, paying attention to a beautiful woman sounded a lot more enticing than paying attention to his brothers as they droned on about the restaurant or to the sisters-in-law as they expounded on the joys and tribulations of parenthood.

As he and Sophie joined them he realized, as he had so many times in the past, that he was a square peg in a family of round holes. Now he understood that no amount of buying anonymous vacations was going to change that.

Seeing his sisters-in-law with children in tow, he also understood that no number of casual relationships would fill that hole of not having someone special to belong to, like his brothers did.

Choices. Live every man’s dream or live his own personal dream.

He would never again become involved with a woman who made him feel the pain of having to choose.

Annalise .

The good doctor was safe, right?

At a glance, Annalise recognized the people in her waiting room as family. They looked—and sounded—exactly alike.

Still, while the family resemblance was strong, Niko stood apart.

One of the lanky teenaged boys jostled another, who looked like an identical twin. “Of course we’d find Uncle Niko down here, playing doctor with the nurse.”

“I’d expect you to be out by the pool, Uncle Niko, checking out the bikini babes. When we walked by, there was this one …” He raised his hands like he was holding coconuts, or maybe watermelons.

Niko cut them both a harsh look. “Respect,” he growled.

At the same time as one of the women gave the twins a sharp look and said, “Boys, behave.”

Amidst the chaos of the two women and smaller children throwing themselves into Niko’s arms and the two men patting him on the back, Niko made introductions.

“Dr. Walcott, these are my brothers and their wives, with assorted nieces and nephews and my grandmother in the back. Family, meet Dr. Walcott. She will be helping us while we’re here.”

A tiny older woman, small in stature but big in presence, waded through three waist-high children and elbowed her way past the two tall boys to the front of the crowd. “I am Olympia Christopoulos. Everyone calls me Yiayia. We were all greatly relieved to learn the ship has its own doctor to help us with our little Sophie.”

Surprising Annalise, Yiayia wrapped her in a big hug. Annalise flailed her arms, unsure what to do, who to be. Should she pretend to be the type of person who was comfortable with this type of thing? Should she hug back? Finally, the hug was over and Annalise could be herself again.

Too late, she wished she’d wrapped her arms around the old woman, just to see what having a grandmother might feel like.

The woman who belonged to the twin boys turned to Niko and patted her huge Hawaiian print tote bag. “I have the meter. I see you have the notebook. It’s time for Sophie’s s-h-o-t.”

From the stricken look on Sophie’s face she clearly knew what word the woman had just spelled out.

Niko gave Sophie a reassuring pat. “Already taken care of, Phoebe.”

“You wrote it all down in the notebook, right? The time and the amount and her blood-sugar reading?” She turned to Annalise. “You know how men are. They don’t always think of these things.”